Education abroad, doctors’ fees: you can spend $1 lakh

The new limit for education abroad would be now $100,000 compared to the existing cap of $30,000, the apex bank said in a notification today.

In a statement, the RBI said it has asked authorised dealers (ADs) to allow remittances for amounts up to the new limits, without insisting on any supporting documents, but on the basis of self-declaration. The payment for purchase of forex must be made by the applicant by means of a cheque or demand draft or by debit to his/her account, the notification added.

The bank has also decided that ADs may henceforth release forex up to $100,000, or its equivalent, to resident Indians for medical treatment abroad, without insisting on any estimate from a hospital/doctor in India/abroad. At present, the limit is $50,000.

It has also been decided to raise the limit for remittance towards consultancy services procured from outside India to $1 million per project, as against the present limit of $100,000. ADs may allow the remittance up to $1 million, subject to the applicant submitting documents to their satisfaction, RBI said.

Reserves now top $80 billion as compared to about $29 billion when RBI’s present governor Bimal Jalan took charge. The huge stockpile has enabled the central bank to cut several restrictions on the capital account although a free float of the currency is unlikely in the near term.

The rupee, convertible only on the current account, is near 33-month highs of 46.22 against the dollar, off a record low of 49.08 on May 16, 2002 when India and Pakistan almost went to war after the Dec 13 attack.